2014 Haiti Tour

 

 

 

Participating Writers:

Todd BOSS’ award-winning poetry collections are Pitch (W. W. Norton, 2012) and Yellowrocket (2008), both finalists for the Minnesota Book Award. His public artworks include “Fragments for the 35W Bridge” (an August 2012 multimedia installation on the Mississippi River to mark the 5th anniversary of the 35W Bridge collapse) and “Arrivals and Departures” (an October 2014 projection of locally sourced poetry films onto the façade of St Paul’s Union Depot to celebrate its rededication). Panic, Todd’s verse retelling of Knut Hamsun’s 1894 novella Pan, will premiere as a one-man opera in late 2013, arranged by Boston Conservatory’s Andy Vores. Todd is a founding co-director of Motionpoems, a leading producer of poetry films now collaborating with Copper Canyon, APR, FSG, Milkweed, Graywolf and other fine publishers.

Gabrielle CALVOCORESSI is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart and Apocalyptic Swing, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship from Stanford University, a Rona Jaffe Woman Writers Award, and The Paris Review's Bernard F. Connors Prize. She has been awarded residencies from the Civitella do Ranieri Foundation and the Lannan Foundation. She is currently at work on a book of poems entitled, Rocket Fantastic and a non-fiction book. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Boston Review, and Poetry, among others. She is the Senior Poetry Editor at Los Angeles Review of Books and the Walker Percy Fellow/Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Angie CRUZ is the author of two novels: Let It Rain Coffee (2005) and Soledad, (2001) both published by Simon & Schuster. She earned her MFA at NYU in 1999. Her shorter works have been anthologized and featured in numerous journals, including Callaloo, Indiana Review and New York Times. Her work has earned her awards such as The New York Foundation of The Arts Fellowship, Barbara Deming Award, Yaddo residency and The Camargo Fellowship. She currently teaches creative writing at University of Pittsburgh, is the editor of Asterixjournal.com and recently completed her third novel, In Search of Caridad.

Christopher MERRILL has published six books of poetry, including Watch Fire, which received the Lavan Younger Poets Award; many edited volumes and books of translations; and five works of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars and Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain. His latest, The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War, chronicles his travels in Asia and the Middle East in the wake of the war on terror. His writings have been translated into twenty-five languages; his journalism appears widely. A member of the National Council on the Humanities and the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, he directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.


IWP Staff Coordinator:

Kelly BEDEIAN received a degree in Linguistics from the University of Iowa, after which she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, then went on to work on a variety of professional development and exchange programs, including as a Country Manager for Armenia and the Caucasus Region with IREX.  She joined the IWP in 2004, where she is an Administrative and Program Coordinator.

Happening Now

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

  • “I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury.

  • In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

Find Us Online